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APBIL 26, 1906. 



The Weekly Rorists' Review* 



1613 



GREAT DISASTER 

 AT SAN FRANCISCO 



^ 



■JAr^-'i^i^-''^^^ 





A NATIONAL CALAMITY. 



During the past week the daily papers 

 have devoted so much space to the great 

 disaster which has overtaken the city of 

 San Francisco tiiat little of a general 

 character need be said. No calamity of 

 like magnitude ever has befallen an 

 American city. So great a portion of 

 the city has been destroyed and so many 

 people driven from their usual walks 

 that it has been impossible for many in- 

 terested parties to communicate with 

 those whom they sought at San Fran- 

 cisco. The telegraph companies were 

 badly crippled and the rush of business 

 has been so great that a telegram for 

 tJie Eeview filed outside the city on 

 W-edne^day, April 18, did not reach Chi- 

 cago until the afternoon of Monday, 

 April 23. 



Without in any way minimizing the 

 extent of the great and unparalleled dis- 

 aster it appears that it has lost nothing 

 in the telling in the newspaper reports. 

 Many buildings are safe which at first 

 were reported destroyed. The map 

 shown on page 1635, this issue, gives an 

 accurate boundary of the burned dis- 

 trict. It covers almost all the business 

 <listrict and most of the better residence 

 and closely built portion of the city. 



The only florist among the known dead 

 is Frank Parmesia, of Frank & Parodi, 

 on Geary street, who was struck by a 

 falling brick. The loss of life princi- 

 pally was in the picturesque old Mission 

 <listrict south of Market street, where no 

 florists either do business or reside. The 

 deaths were mostly due to the collapse 

 of buildings during the earthquake. 

 There were some casualties during the 

 wild disorder Avhich prevailed when the 

 imminence of the great conflagration 

 was seen and before the troops took con- 

 trol. Not all florists are accounted for, 

 and many employees still are missing, 

 but it is thought all escaped with their 

 lives. ]\[any thousands of people left 

 the city before tlie fire was under con- 

 trol and have not yet returned. It will 

 be a long time before all are accounted 

 for. Gen. Greely, who has succeeded 

 Gen. Funston in command of the U. S. 

 troops, reports to the War Department 

 April L'4 that the total dead are 277. 

 The coroner, however, places the number 

 much higher, saying that 350 bodies 

 have been buried.' Even the higher figure 

 is little more than half the deaths in 

 the Chicago theater fire of 1904. 



^loie than half the florists of San 

 Irancisco were located in the district 

 ^vhich was fire swept. Nearly all were 

 letailers. The glass is in the outlying 

 sections and from all reports has sus- 

 tained little injury. In some cases the 

 flames crept dangerously near. The fire 

 i-eached the brow of the great hill above 

 the big range of Sievers & Co. at 1251 

 ''hestnut street, but the greenhouses 

 escaped with a little glass liroken. 



A large part of the cut flower and 

 J>lHnt production for the San Francisco 

 inarkot was carried on ,in greenliouse es- 

 Jabliahments located in Oakland, Berke- 

 '<\v and Alameda. These districts did 



not suffer to any great extent from the 

 earthquake and were spared the ravages 

 of fire. They are, however, left wholly 

 without a market and advices to hand 

 state that immense quantities of cut 

 flowers are being sent to the hospitals 

 and charitable institutions of the neigh- 

 borhood, there being no other use for 

 them. 



In the general chaos which still pre- 

 vails in the business center of San Fran- 

 cisco it has been impossible to check 

 up each individual establishment, and it 

 \s impossible to say just what the loss 

 is. There are many cases where build- 

 ings were spared in the center of the 

 devastated districts and it niay be that 

 some retail flower stores have escaped 

 total destruction. A number of the 

 modern steel buildings are found to have 

 suffered comparatively little. The Art 

 Floral Co., owned by Peter Matraia, 

 was in the Flood building, which sur- 



LATEST DETAILS OF LOSSES. 



San Francisco, April 21. — The new 

 ferry building, although slightly out of 

 plumb, still keeps watch at the foot of 

 Market street. Smoldering fires can be 

 seen both at tj^ north and south sides 

 of ^Market street, and the conflagration 

 is over only because there is nothing 

 more to burn. Everything is chaotic. 

 It is impossible to state fully at this 

 time of the losses sustained by the 

 trade. 



The magnificent establishments of 

 Sievers & Boland, Pelicano & Co., Po- 

 <lesta & Baldocchi were all swept out of 

 existence early Thursday morning. So 

 fast did the flames spread in the center 

 of town that there Avas no chance for 

 any of the merchants to save anything 

 in the line of stock or fittings and, with 

 the onrushing flames and air thick with 

 smoke and flying cinders no one thought 

 of anything but the race for life. The 

 earthquake occurred before six o'clock 

 and the fire, which started first on Mis- 

 sion and Third streets, galloped quickly 

 down toward the water front and then 

 over in the direction of the Palace 

 hotel and toward the banking district. 

 With not a drop of water on hand to 

 stay the flames the firemen had to de- 

 pend on dynamiting buildings in the 

 path of the flames. 



As far as 1 have been able to ascer- 



John H. 



(Owner of the largest greenhouse 



Sievers. 



establishment In San Francisco.) 



vivcd the conflagration, although a part 

 of its contents was burned. 



The rebuilding of the city has already 

 been undertaken. A new San Francisco 

 will rise from the ashes of the old town. 

 It will be a city which will defy another 

 fire and the flower stores will be models 

 of their kind. The business was always 

 prosperous there and it will be more so 

 in years to come, but for a season there 

 is no prospect of business, other than 

 rebuilding, before them. 



tain tiiere were no fatalities among the 

 florists, and for this we should be thank- 

 ful. 



The twenty stores, comprising those 

 situated in the central portion of town, 

 were the first to be abandoned, although 

 rec()r<ls and valualiles were generally 

 save'!. The three I have first mentioned, 

 also .Faeger & Co., Geo. B. Jones & Co., 

 R|)hraim & Co., Kossi, Rosaia and The 

 Sutter Street Florists, will have losses 

 running from $3,000 to $10,000 each. 



